przemek kramarz

The illustrations show the interior spaces of the restaurant in the Hotel Warszawa project, which was described in the previous entry. Space was created both by moving down into existing underground levels and by removing existing concrete structures, to connect areas on the ground floor with existing underground levels. My brief was to decide on the extent of the removal of existing elements and to design new ones, such as a concrete staircase, a footbridge that led to a flight of stairs and extra reinforcement of existing concrete pillars. All interiors are designed with the intention of exposing the beauty of reinforced concrete construction.

I would like to call your attention to the fact that only the finish elements of the installations are visible on the ceiling: all connections including wiring, the piping for sprinklers, safety wiring, etc, are located in the floor of the level above, so as not to distract from the view of the concrete construction.

The execution of this part of the project, also taught me that nuances of a project shown in the final drawings must be marked especially clearly. In the concrete footbridge I designed, the middle was slightly widened and ends slightly tapered to add to the dynamic of the composition. This shape mirrored the concrete pillars which are waisted in the middle. However, the geometry of the footbridge was so subtle that the carpenters installing the framework decided that there must be a mistake and straightened the edges. While this didn’t destroy the appearance, it decreased its lightness and dynamic. This incident convinced me that not everything that is obvious to the architect is equally so to the contractor and hopefully, I won’t let that happen again.

Part of this project included reshaping the existing facade on the ground floor. Originally, the external display windows were located high over the heads of people passing; these were lowered down to eye level. While working on this part of the design, I liaised with the conservation officer.